The Wonderful World of Practical Joking
by SomedayEngland
Summary: Oneshot - While staying at Number 12 Grimmauld Place with the Order, Ron and Ginny succeed in offending Hermione. What better oppourtunity for twins Fred and George Weasley to share a bit of their trouble making expertise with others?


**Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be writing fan fiction. :) So no, I claim no ownership - I only stand in awe of J.K. Rowling's creation.**

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Hermione blinked rapidly to vanish the hot tears that were once again beginning to form. All that she had done was merely point out to him that if her were to hold his wand higher, he would vanish much more dust, and therefore complete his task much more quickly. And then, of course, Ron had to respond.

"Do you ever get tired of it, Hermione?" He had asked, as she flawlessly demonstrated the improved spell.

"Tired of what?" She inquired plainly, taking his wand hand to arch his wrist at the right angle.

Ron pulled his arm back in irritation and lowered his eyebrows at her. "Of knowing just about everything there is to know!" Hermione glanced up at him with slight surprise.

"I reckon you must," Ginny piped up from the opposite corner of the small bedroom. "Although, being head of most of your classes doesn't quite sound tragic," she added, while Ron once again attempted to magic the filth off of an old bookcase - succeeding only in sending a puff of dust into the air around him.

The Twins, who were emptying a cabinet of old potion bottles next to him, both sneezed loudly. George grimaced and waved his hands about, clearing the air around their heads, while Fred turned on Ron.

"Do we need to take that from you?" He asked menacingly, making a grab for his younger brother's wand. Ron dodged and scowled darkly in the Twins' direction. "Watch what you're doing over there," Fred finished, and turned back to his task.

Everyone was irritable, as this was the third room that they had tackled that day. It was nearly supper, and hopefully after that their mother would take a break from her endless crusade to cleanse the ancient mansion and let them have the evening off.

Ron and Hermione also returned to their job. Hermione, still slightly annoyed by Ginny's comment, made the mistake of bringing up the previous topic. "I'm far from knowing everything. Even if I do know a bit more than some."

"And surely you're not stuck up at all!" Ron declared, failing an attempt to hide his small laugh. Ginny, however, made no attempt at all and laughed out loud - causing the magically illustrated books that she was sorting to cover their ears in annoyance and shake angry little fists up at her.

Hermione could feel her face reddening as she looked down toward the floor with her jaw set in a defiant expression. She turned back the the shelf that she had been working on and performed a powerful spell - vanishing the last of the grime. "There! I've finished," she announced, louder than she had meant to. George and Fred glanced over their shoulders at her seemingly sudden outburst.

This, of course, only caused her to become more embarrassed, and she turned on her heel to stomp towards the door.

"Hermione..." Ron said in a slow and awed voice. "You...you _missed_ a spot!" Ginny giggled at the faked shocked expression on his face.

Hermione knew that she should have just turned and walked on. But pride intervened and she raised her wand toward the shelves again. Unfortunately, in her attempt to prove to Ron that his jokes were not getting to her, she proved the opposite.

She raised her wand high, too high in fact, and spoke the words of the spell. And while, true, it effectively cleaned every bit of the bookshelf, her spell also vanished the large curtain behind it - sending several clouds of the centuries-old dust that the fabric had been holding into the air.

Almost instantly, you couldn't see for the thick dust in the small room. All five of the workers ran for the door, Hermione being the first to escape. She watched as each of the Weasleys tumbled out. Ginny - on top of Ron - on top of...one of the Twins - who was, well, on top of the other. Each of the redheads shoved whoever was holding them down off, except Ginny, who just rolled to the floor. Then they all stood, and faced toward Hermione.

Any other time, they would have looked rather comical. It seemed that their bright hair had started to gray in places, as they were all covered from head to toe in old white dust. But as it was, they weren't at all funny to Hermione - they were staring at her.

But then, to her horrified amazement, Ginny just pointed a shaking finger at her - and started to laugh. Ron quickly joined in, out of breath and leaning against the wall. Fred and George still didn't look amused, as they had seen each other and realized how ridiculous they looked.

But that had been the last straw for Hermione. She had turned without a word and walked quickly down the hall. She fumed as she headed for the bedroom that she and Ginny shared - though if Ginny were to show her face there now, she very well might be hexed.

Hermione ran up a small flight of stairs and entered a door at the top, slamming it behind her. "Oh, shut it," she snapped at a portrait of a short old wizard that started to complain at the disturbance. Hermione had really come to dislike that portrait, and now more than ever she was not in the mood to put up with his attitude.

Ron! She wasn't stuck up, even if she did take a small and reasonable amount of pride at the fact that she actually _listened_ during class. And there had been no reason for Ginny to laugh at something as ridiculous as that!

Hermione paced the room angrily a few times, and then turned to sit on a tall wooden chair in the corner. However, an earsplitting _CRACK_ outside the door startled her and caused her to miss the chair completely, instead landing painfully on the floor.

A loud knock on the door immediately followed and she stood reluctantly to open it, knowing exactly who was there. The door swung back to reveal two identical faces beaming down at her.

"Hello, Hermione!" Fred greeted.

"We thought we'd find you here," George's face fell to a mournful expression. "Alone, lamenting the cruel blow that has been dealt to your pride."

Hermione glared fiercely at them as Fred wiped away an imaginary tear. The last thing that she wanted to see right now was more jokes.

"But cry no longer, fair lady," Fred assumed a pose that might have succeeded in looking slightly heroic, had it not been for the dust still smudged across his nose.

"We have the solution to all of your problems!" George finished boldly.

Hermione barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes and slam the door in their faces. "And what might that be?" She asked tightly, very little patience to spare.

The Twins did not answer directly, but instead stepped past her and into the small bedroom. "We heard everything, and know the feeling exactly," George continued. "You need some way to get back at those little nasties that damaged your delicate emotions -

- and yet, causing them physical harm doesn't seem like the best of ideas -

- despite being great fun. So, you need a better way -

- to show them that you aren't going to put up with this cruel treatment."

"And we, Hermione, are _just _the people to show you that way!" The Twins finished together and once again displayed bright smiles.

Hermione raised her eyebrows skeptically. Fred and George wanted to help her to get revenge on Ron and Ginny...this was different.

"I'm not sure that I really want to know what you are suggesting here." she said, eyeing their cheerful faces doubtfully.

"No, were sure that you don't," George admitted.

"Which is exactly why we are going to tell you, you need to know." Fred and George both nodded firmly and waited for Hermione to respond.

She had never considered any kind of revenge - unless completely ignoring someone for the next several hours counted. But she couldn't deny that the Twins had succeeded in making her curious.

"Tell me then, what _should_ I do?" Hermione folded her arms and gave them a challenging look.

George and Fred's eyes glinted with triumph as they glanced at each other, before turning their full attention to Hermione.

"Let us introduce you," Fred began, "to the wonderful world -

- of practical joking." George completed the sentence and mirrored his twin's mischievous grin.

"No!" Hermione announced forcefully. "No, no, no, I will under no circumstances allow you to rope me into your stupid pranks!" She finished with a small toss of her dust-filled hair. The Twins' faces fell and George turned away with an unmistakable air of poutiness.

"Well then, Fred. It seems that we have fully worn out our welcome." He walked towards the door and opened it.

Fred followed, then turned back to Hermione before he exited the room. "You can't resist that little call to the dark side, anyhow. You know that you want to have a bash at a bit of fun for once." He ducked out of the door and avoided Hermione's last haughty glare.

As soon as they had left, Hermione finally felt that it was safe to think. What would it be like to actually pull a prank on someone? Nothing big, just a bit of fun.

She winced as she realized that she had just used Fred's exact words. But maybe there was nothing wrong with that...maybe she could try something. Just this once.

It didn't take Hermione long to completely give in to the idea. To reassure herself that she did still have some self control, she decided that she would see what she thought after sitting through dinner with Ron and Ginny. On that thought, it was probably already time to eat. She might as well go downstairs now instead of waiting for someone to be forced to come and get her.

She stepped out into the hall, reaching behind her to close the door. There was something wrapped around the handle. Hermione pulled a small bag off of the door knob. There was a tag tied onto the drawstrings that read:  
_"This should help._  
_Signed, Us"_

Hermione started to grin slowly - then stopped abruptly as she realized that she probably looked somewhat like the Twins as they plotted a new trick. Even if she was going along with this, she refused to act like them anymore than she had to. So, she settled with a small smirk and stepped back inside her room to examine the contents of the small bag...

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**I wrote this story to escape the evil clutches of Writer's Block. I know that it seems a bit incomplete, but this is all that the plot bunny left me to work with. I swear that if I am ever creative enough to find out what was in the bag - I will write it and post a sequel.  
Haha...and I know that if this story really took place, all of the Weasleys and Hermione would be expelled for use of underage magic - but I didn't realise that until _after_ I wrote it, so just deal.**

**Anyway - All of this reading make you want to write something?? How about a review!?**


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